Conrad Wells

Birth : , New York City, New York, USA

Death : 1930-01-02

History

Born Abraham Fried in c.1897, he was a cinematographer in early Hollywood specializing in outdoor and early western cinema. He died tragically along with 9 others while filming Such Men Are Dangerous (1930) off the coast near Santa Monica, the plane he was filming on collided with another plane. Both planes burst into flames before crashing into the ocean. Among the dead were the director, Kenneth Hawks and three other cameramen George Eastman, Otho Jordan, Ben Frankel and Max Gold, the Assistant Director, two property men and the two pilots.

Movies

Such Men Are Dangerous
Camera Operator
A wealthy and powerful industrialist changes his identity to avenge himself on the wife that spurned him on their wedding night.
Romance of the Underworld
Cinematography
When a gangster's speakeasy is raided by the police, one of the people picked up is the gangster's pretty young girlfriend. A kind-hearted cop takes pity on her and helps her get out of that life. While waitressing to earn money for college, she meets a wealthy and handsome young man and they fall in love--but he doesn't know about her somewhat shady past and her relationship with the gangster.
Dry Martini
Director of Photography
Upon hearing that his daughter Elizabeth, is coming from America to visit him in Paris, wealthy Willoughby Quimby, decides to give up dry martinis and women. However, Elizabeth seeks a wild time and ends up leaving France with her father's drinking buddy, Freddie, and Willoughby goes back to his dry martinis.
The Desired Woman
Director of Photography
The beautiful and cultured Lady Diana Whitney marries Captain Maxwell of the British Army. When he is transferred to the Sahara, life at his remote post becomes one trial after another for Diana. Then Larry Trent, a young lieutenant, arrives to provide a pleasant reminder of days past, but Maxwell, in a jealous rage over their innocent companionship, sends Trent to a distant village.
The Country Beyond
Director of Photography
In the Canadian mountains an orphan girl, Valencia, is left in the care of the abusive Hawkins family. A fugitive outlaw, Roger McKay, stumbles onto the property and immediately falls in love with Valencia. When Mr. Hawkins is killed by his long-suffering spouse, Roger assumes that Valencia committed the murder and confesses to the crime to protect her.
His Forgotten Wife
Director of Photography
During the World War, Donald Allen is reported killed in action but is really a victim of amnesia. His French nurse, Suzanne, gives him a new identity, and they marry.
Flesh and Blood
Director of Photography
A convict hiding in Chinatown assumes the identity of a cripple to track down a businessman who framed him 15 years previously. He discovers that his daughter has fallen in love with the businessman's son.
The Man from Hell's River
Director of Photography
Adventure of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Good-Bad Wife
Cinematography
William Carter, a young Virginian in Paris, becomes enchanted with music hall dancer Fanchon La Fare. After William reluctantly returns to America, Fanchon follows him, and when she is threatened with deportation because of an irregularity in her passport, William marries her. The marriage causes consternation in the upright Carter family, which is compounded when Fanchon performs one of her dances at a church benefit. At the conclusion of her dance, Fanchon sees a stranger in the audience and faints. Later, the same man appears at the Carter residence and demands to see her. Leigh Carter, William's younger brother, becomes angered and shoots the man. At the trial, Fanchon confesses that the stranger was her estranged husband whom she had been forced to marry when she was but a child. The crime thus clarified, Leigh is freed, and Fanchon, who had been expelled earlier from the Carter house, is welcomed back by her husband and his family. (Courtesy TCM)